Manna Holds 11th Thanksgiving Dinner In Bangor

For the past 11 years the people at Manna have made sure that folks in the community do not go without a a good meal on Thanksgiving. The folks at Manna Ministries, with a little help from volunteers, helped make Thanksgiving special for some local people in need. Bill Rae is the Executive Director at Manna. “We’re gonna make sure that nobody goes without a meal today,” says Rae, “we have pies, we have turkeys, stuffing, all the fixings to go along with it. We have people coming in today to help make sure it’s going to be a fantastic day.”It’s the 11th year they’ve put this dinner on and the 2nd year on Columbia Street. Rae says they’ll even provide transportation. “We have our busses out picking people up and bringing them over and hopefully that will be all it takes to get somebody out of their own despair and come in and sit down and break bread with us.”The volunteers here say it’s great to know they’re giving back to their community. Lonnie and Brooke Hackett, a brother and sister from Bangor, were happy to help out. “Well me and my sister both thought it would be a great chance to give back to the community,” says Lonnie hackett, “we’ve lived here for a few years and we’ve got to meet a lot of people and whenever you have a chance to give back we feel like it’s our responsibility.” “Well I just feel like there are so many people out there who don’t have very much,” sys Brooke Hackett, “me and my brother are really fortunate we have so much, a great family, so I just feel it’s important for those who do have a lot just to give back to the people who don’t.”Robert Kennedy is a therapist working for Manna and he brought his family to help out. “It seems like this is the time of year to go beyond what is comfortable, to go out of our comfort zone to help those who are broken hearted.” For the folks who volunteer their time this event is quite an undertaking. “The process started about a month and a half ago,” says Rae, “raising turkeys, the 6030 turkeys we needed to hand out to food pantries and individuals started to get together pies yesterday. On Wednesday somebody brought in 60 homemade pumpkin pies I knew they put some effort into it, so it takes a lot. But you know what makes it easier? It’s when the community is doing this together and that is what this is all about. It isn’t just manna, it’s not just channel 5, it’s all of the media, all of the people in this community that have come together saying what can we do to help the homeless, the poor and the needy.”